Police on Monday arrested three men after a year-long investigation of the fatal shooting of Denny “Pun” Alcantara, above, a 22-year-old Belltown man during a robbery on the West Side on Nov. 4, 2009.
Photo: File Photo

Police on Monday arrested three men after a year-long investigation...

STAMFORD -- Prosecutors dropped the charges against a man who spent the last three years in jail after his arrest in connection with the 2009 robbery and murder of a West Side man.

Joshua "Gunz" McNeill was released from custody after 42 months in jail after the state's attorney's office determined it lacked the evidence to convict him on the felony murder and robbery charges filed in the death of Denny "Pun" Alcantara on Stillwater Avenue.

Two men with McNeill on the date of Alcantara's murder Nov. 4, 2009, were convicted on the charges.

Tyrone "TT" Tarver, 25, was found guilty of felony murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit third-degree robbery in January 2013 and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Darryl "Pretty D" Bonds was convicted in late May of felony murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery, and is facing up to 90 years in prison when he is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

Prosecutors did not drop all the charges against McNeill. He pleaded guilty to robbing two Hispanic day laborers in 2009 and will be on special parole for two years after Judge Gary White sentenced him to time served.

Mark Sherman, McNeill's attorney for the murder charge, said they have maintained from the beginning he is innocent of any involvement in Alcantara's murder. McNeill, who went with Tarver and Bonds to buy marijuana from Alcantara that day, according to witness testimony in the trials, never spoke to police about the murder.

Bonds's cousin, Yvania Collazo, told the juries that around 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 4, 2009, she gave the three a ride down to Stillwater Avenue to buy the marijuana. After walking into a nearby beauty salon and then returning to her car, she heard two shots. As she opened the driver's door of her car, she saw McNeill at the driver's side rear passenger door, while Bonds and Tarver ran up to the car several seconds later.

After they drove away, Collazo said McNeill was the first to be dropped off. After that Tarver and Bonds talked a about the robbery and divvied up a small amount of pot, a couple hundred dollars in cash, a gold chain and a leather jacket taken from Alcantara, 22, after he was shot twice in the abdomen.

"He had no information for the police because he had no information," Sherman said. "He had no idea what happened to the victim when he was shot."

Sherman said McNeill was hundreds of yards away from the scene when Alcantara got shot. Sherman also said McNeill's supposed street name of "Gunz" is a myth. The nickname, which was recorded by police in his arrest affidavit, Sherman said may have been a way to sell newspapers, but was "pure fiction."

Senior Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Valdes said Collazo's testimony showed McNeill may not have been at the scene when Alcantara was killed.

"There just isn't enough evidence to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt," he said. "The best we can infer is that because this was his third robbery, that he was there to buy marijuana or a possible participant in the robbery, and at some moment he decided not to become involved. There just wasn't enough evidence based on Collazo's testimony to try him on the felony murder charge."

Sefton Brown, McNeill's attorney on the robbery charges said, "I think given the circumstances, it is a fair disposition. I am hoping he learned his lesson from everything that transpired and he will do the right thing going forward."